Tamer Seckin, MD - Endofound Co-Founder - Blossom Ball 2015

Tamer Seckin, MD: Good evening. Oh, I am connecting with you through here and I am thanking you from the bottom of my heart. This is a major turn out and we are so happy and even feel empowered by your being here looking to the future for better days and doing better for the community we like to represent. I do not have a prepared speech. Surgeons, I cannot memorize things. I am just…before I was here I was handed a letter and they said read this. I am going to read the letter. She also joins us from a distance, I just heard the news she hit the road with a van going from New York to Iowa.

So she says, this is April 13, 2015, “Dear friends, it gives me great pleasure to send greetings to all those (that is you gathered) for the Endometriosis Foundation of America’s annual Blossom Ball. I am so thankful to Padma Lakshmi for starting this organization and for hosting this event to raise awareness and celebrate the important work of the Endometriosis Foundation of America. Endofound is on the forefront of combatting the devastating effects of endometriosis by increasing awareness (that is what you are here for) and disease recognition facilitating expert surgical training and funding ground breaking medical research, engage in a robust campaign to inform both the medical community along with the public. Endofound emphasizes the critical importance of early diagnosis and effective intervention. The work of this organization is dynamic from the launch of the Center for Gynecologic Pathology research at MIT to the program created to educate teenage students on the disease, to the annual medical conference that brings together researchers and doctors. Endofound is working at full speed in every community to increase awareness of this disease. Your leadership is inspiring and giving hope to the countless women and girls who suffer from the disease and stress of endometriosis.

While I regret that I am unable to be with you on this special occasion, please know I am grateful for your good work that I am cheering you on the continued success with your mission in the years ahead onward. With best wishes I am sincerely yours, Hillary Rodham Clinton”. For this you do not have to be a Democrat. Republicans can do this too. Thank you very much.

Moving on as usual we had the medical conference. I have guests from all over the world from London, Belgium, New Zealand. They are very well known in this profession, what we treat, we learn from them. There are two special people we honor every year, one scientist and one surgeon. And before that I want to recognize our Medical Director, Dr. Harry Reich, Harry would you stand up please, who has taught many of us over the years in his lifetime. I am proud to say that he is our Medical Director.

These two are exceptional. Like in the past they have published extensively and they have given and sacrificed their life to the study of this disease. The first person’s name is Dr. Ronald Batt from Buffalo. Ronald Batt, I would like to invite you to the podium please. Dr. Batt is an MD, PhD. He has written hundreds of articles, published books and he is awarded this special plaque for his over 30 years work on this disease. I trained in Buffalo and I had the pleasure of meeting him there also. Dr. Batt, congratulations.

This is named the Dr. Harry Reich Award for the pioneering work in the science and treatment of endometriosis, Ronald Elmer Batt, University of Buffalo – thank you.

Ronald Batt, MD: Ladies and gentlemen I first heard of the Endometriosis Foundation of America in Montpellier, France in 2011 at the 11th World Congress of Endometriosis when Tamer and I were sitting together at a picnic table. But I never could really feel the depth and breadth of this society, this Foundation until I was at the meeting this past weekend. For three days the most amazingly intense contributions by the scientists and also the amazing first day when the interaction between patients and the faculty was at such a high level I just could not believe it. Thank you.

Tamer Seckin, MD: The second honoree is Dr. Robert Taylor from Wake Forest School of Medicine. He is the Vice Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Taylor is a Stanford graduate and committed all his life as an OBGYN physician to the molecular study of every fingerprint that can be defined in endometriosis. I followed his work through the years. He is a committed, caring physician who deserves this better than anyone this year. We had his great lectures throughout the day. One thing he did was amazing, he talked about the diet and herbal treatments that could help endometriosis and the findings were fabulous. Dr. Robert Taylor, please. This says, the Harry Reich Award for pioneering work in the science and treatment of endometriosis, Robert N. Taylor, MD, PhD, Wake Forest School of Medicine. Congratulations.

Robert Taylor, MD: Harry and Tamer and Padma thank you so much. This is a huge honor for me. I have been working in this area of endometriosis for over 30 years myself and it is so wonderful to see the work that you are doing. I just want to thank all of you that are here. I want to thank my mentors who led me to this opportunity and I want to thank my wife for supporting me throughout this work and all of the patients that have contributed so much time and effort to really help us help you all find a better understanding about what the disease is about and how we can develop new and better therapies for it. So thanks so much, this is a great honor.

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